{"id":36925,"date":"2023-08-20T01:53:44","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T20:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=36925"},"modified":"2025-04-22T09:16:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T03:46:35","slug":"national-e-commerce-policy-features-advantages-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/national-e-commerce-policy-features-advantages-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"National E-Commerce Policy \u2013 Features, Advantages, Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Background<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Major Takeaways of the Draft National E-Commerce Policy<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Advantages of the Draft E-Commerce Policy<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Criticism of the Draft E-Commerce Policy<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The proposed national e-commerce policy being formulated by the commerce and industry ministry is in the final stages and no new draft policy will be issued now for seeking views of stakeholders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is emerging as a crucial catalyst for Indian economic growth and development.\n<ul>\n<li>As per the estimates, grocery and fashion\/apparel being the key drivers, the Indian e-commerce industry would be valued at $99 billion in 2024, eventually growing to <strong>$300 billion by 2030<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Recognizing its potential, the government is closely monitoring the evolving electronic business landscape, which requires a regulatory framework to protect buying, selling, marketing, and distribution activities.<\/li>\n<li>In 2019, a draft National E-Commerce policy was prepared and placed in public domain.<\/li>\n<li>In response to the draft Policy, comments of a number of foreign governments have been received, including the US Government flagging issues of US businesses.<\/li>\n<li>In August 2023, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) held a detailed discussion with representatives of e-commerce firms and a domestic traders&#8217; body on the proposed policy.<\/li>\n<li>A government official said that a consensus has emerged among the concerned stakeholders on the proposed policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Major Takeaways of the Draft National E-Commerce Policy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry of Commerce and Industry released the draft National E-Commerce Policy on 23 February 2019 (DPIIT 2019).<\/li>\n<li>The aim of the policy is <strong>to enhance consumer protection, data privacy and create a level playing field<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The 2019 draft proposed to address six broad areas of the e-commerce ecosystem \u2013\n<ul>\n<li>Data,<\/li>\n<li>Infrastructure development,<\/li>\n<li>E-commerce marketplaces,<\/li>\n<li>Regulatory issues,<\/li>\n<li>Stimulating the domestic digital economy, and<\/li>\n<li>Export promotion through e-commerce.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The draft talks about \u2013\n<ul>\n<li>Framework for restrictions on cross-border data flow;<\/li>\n<li>Collection or processing of sensitive data locally and storing it abroad;<\/li>\n<li>Measures to contain the sale of counterfeit products, prohibited items, and pirated content; and<\/li>\n<li>Review of the current practice of not imposing custom duties on electronic transmissions in the light of the changing digital economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Besides, it suggests provisions for promoting exports through e-commerce; and developing capacity for data storage in India.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>policy aims for inclusive growth in the digital space and in the e-commerce sector along with Make in India and Digital India programmes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The government hopes to <strong>encourage competition and prevent market failures<\/strong> and other market distortions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Advantages of the Draft E-Commerce Policy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The strongest element is that of information provision \u2014 Firms are expected to provide clear information regarding product details, photos, returns and exchange rules, modes of payment, grievance redressal mechanisms, etc.<\/li>\n<li>A related point is to <strong>set up clear<\/strong> <strong>grievance redressal mechanisms<\/strong> including nodal officers, timeframes and processes.<\/li>\n<li>This is a positive outcome for the consumers since good\/transparent information and frictionless pre- and post- purchase processing are keys to a healthy e-commerce market.<\/li>\n<li>Platforms are required to open up the details of the sellers (name, location, contact details, etc.).<\/li>\n<li>This is good since buyers can now decide to do business with sellers beyond a platform (if they wish to).<\/li>\n<li>Platforms cannot use the vast data available to them to gain unfair advantage over sellers or show differential treatment between sellers. This is an important rule that goes a long way in <strong>ensuring<\/strong> <strong>seller welfare<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Criticism of the Draft E-Commerce Policy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The proposed rules <strong>infringe on other ministries\u2019 mandates<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>For instance, the \u2018fallback-liability\u2019 clause holds platforms liable for any mis-selling by third party sellers.<\/li>\n<li>However, this runs counter to the FDI rules of the Finance Ministry \u2014 preventing platforms from explicitly managing their inventory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Further, it takes away the immunity granted specifically to marketplaces under the IT Act.<\/li>\n<li>Similarly, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs feels that rules related to the abuse of competitive position are unnecessary since there is already a robust Competition Commission of India that oversees such issues.<\/li>\n<li>The proposal also <strong>refrains related parties from commercial activities on platforms<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>A related party is any entity with common shareholders of over 5 per cent or more than 10 per cent ownership.<\/li>\n<li>While the motivation for this clause is noble, it won\u2019t make any sense from a regulatory perspective.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is meant by Flash Sales?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A flash sale is a discount or promotion offered for a limited period of time. It allows merchants to sell a vast number of products at a large discount.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)\u00a0 Which country has the biggest e-commerce market?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The revenue ranking in the e-commerce market is led by China with 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars, while the United States is following with 856.77 billion U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/news\/india\/national-e-commerce-policy-in-final-stages-no-new-draft-to-be-issued-official-11692512665260.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>National e-commerce policy in final stages, no new draft to be issued: Official<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epw.in\/journal\/2022\/38\/special-articles\/national-e-commerce-policy-2019.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>EPW<\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Ecommerce&#8221; or &#8220;electronic commerce&#8221; is the trading of goods and services on the internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}